Chapter Summaries

After the early matches eliminated many cultivators and stripped them of their Purple Mansions, Wang Quan and Yu Wanzhou prepared for the more dangerous final matches. The cultivators learned they would enter Yesterday's Battlefield, where death was certain and powerful fighters from many realms would descend, but they resolved to risk it for the promised opportunities.

• Defeated cultivators complained as puppets forced them to surrender their Purple Mansions or Foundation Establishment Dao Platforms.
• Wang Quan and Yu Wanzhou discussed how the remaining contestants were stronger and better equipped, then waited with their allies for the formal matches.
• The match announcement declared that Yesterday's Battlefield would open after a cup of tea and that leaving was impossible, death was final, and cultivators from many realms would take part.
• Wang Quan and the others decided to risk the battlefield for the mysterious Daoist Scriptures and its other opportunities.
• A female cultivator summoned her White Bone Banner, Yin Soul Banner, Blood Pool, and Flesh Forest, then urged the matches to begin.

Wang Quan and Yu Wanzhou entered a perilous magical battle in Yesterday's Battlefield after cultivators were warned to write last letters and saw decaying great cultivators sacrifice themselves to open the way. The great cultivators revealed that the mission was to kill a target in the past and change events to prevent Heaven's Collapse.

• The cultivators received resources and paper for last letters, and Wang Quan urged the hesitant Yu Wanzhou to withdraw, but she chose to fight for a chance to escape mediocrity.
• Decaying great cultivators sacrificed themselves to form a gateway, with one entering after being told his true spirit was safely stored and he could reincarnate.
• Grotto heavens, blessed lands, and cultivation realms reinforced the gateway as cultivators entered Yesterday's Battlefield in batches, beginning with Purple Mansion Realm cultivators.
• Wang Quan and Yu Wanzhou entered hand in hand, and Wang Quan lost consciousness as he plunged into the radiance.
• After nearly ten million Foundation Establishment Cultivators entered, the great cultivators explained that they hoped to kill a target in the past and prevent Heaven's Collapse.

Wang Quan discovered that he had possessed a youth in a fragment of history and was tasked with killing Liu Yong and changing the Great Shang Empire’s defeat at Black Dragon Ridge. He joined forces with spell-battle cultivators at a Great Shang recruit camp, where the Purple-Robed Marquis organized them to prepare for their march to Purple Gold Pass.

• Wang Quan watched the possessed infant grow into a youth over what felt like only a few hours, then gained control when the youth entered a military camp.
• A sealed message told Wang Quan to kill Liu Yong and his companions, thwart the Great Qian Empire, and alter the youth’s life; it warned that failure would make him repeat the history fragment.
• Wang Quan learned he had about ten years before the Battle of Black Dragon Ridge and decided to test his chances, knowing he could try again if he failed.
• The Purple-Robed Marquis revealed himself as a cultivator of the Sky Patrol Gate and gathered the youths, most of whom were spell-battle cultivators.
• The Purple-Robed Marquis assigned temporary military posts after learning the camp held five thousand Great Shang recruits bound for Purple Gold Pass, more than a month away.
• The Purple-Robed Marquis ordered everyone to rest and cultivate for a day before marching, warning that anyone who missed the deadline would be beheaded.

Wang Quan and the other cultivators adopted the natives’ Twelve-Style Demon Beast Transformation to hide their power, then strengthened themselves as they traveled toward Purple Gold Pass. Wang Quan learned about the Great Shang and Great Qian empires from two monster draft animals, who revealed that their relatives had been killed and served as military rations.

• Wang Quan warned the cultivators not to use their usual methods to refine Dharma power, and they agreed to practice the natives’ Twelve-Style Demon Beast Transformation instead.
• After a day and night of practice, Wang Quan and the cultivators reached Martial Grandmaster strength, then used gathered purple qi to temper their bodies rather than form Dharma power.
• The party broke camp and headed toward Purple Gold Pass while the monster animals packed and pulled their carts, and the Purple-Robed Marquis told the cooks to gather provisions when supplies ran low.
• Wang Quan asked two ox and horse monsters about the Great Shang Empire, Purple Gold Pass, and the Great Qian Empire, learning that the Great Qian had rebelled against Great Shang ten years earlier.
• The ox and horse condemned the Great Qian’s laws and explained that their relatives had fled its rule, only to be killed by an army and eaten as military rations.

Wang Quan's troop hunted monsters for provisions and defeated those guarding a mountain. After Wang Quan revealed a technique linking the era's cultivation methods to their own, the cultivators prepared to use monster organs to advance before reaching Purple Gold Pass.

• Wang Quan and his companions, short on flesh and blood provisions, raided a mountain and fought its Foundation Establishment monsters.
• The combat cultivators defeated the monsters, collected their bodies, and discussed lessons from the battle while the cooks prepared a meal.
• The Purple-Robed Marquis proposed that the troop advance to Foundation Establishment before heading to Purple Gold Pass, and the others agreed.
• Wang Quan explained that the [Scripture of Ghostly Speech, Spirit Wandering, and the Transformations of Mountains and Rivers] had helped him link the two eras' Fundamental Methods.
• The cultivators learned Wang Quan's technique and began refining the monsters' organs and essence blood as external attachments for cultivation.

Wang Quan and the cultivators discovered that neither the Underworld nor the Second-Layer World existed in the historical era they had entered. The Purple-Robed Marquis proposed creating the Underworld themselves, and the cultivators realized they could become the founders of the realms and traditions they knew.

• Wang Quan tried to persuade the captured monsters to accept their deaths by promising them glory in the Underworld, but a black-haired water buffalo monster insisted he had never heard of it.
• Wang Quan and the other cultivators refined Dharma Power and used more than three thousand spells to search for the Underworld, but none could reach it.
• Wang Quan also failed to sense the Second-Layer World, and the Purple-Robed Marquis confirmed that neither realm existed in this era.
• The cultivators considered abandoning their mission to kill Liu Yong and creating the Underworld instead, though some worried they might be trapped in the historical fragment.
• The Purple-Robed Marquis explained that changing a crucial historical juncture could break the time loop, and the cultivators imagined becoming founders of the Underworld, the Second-Layer World, and the many cultivation traditions.

Wang Quan stayed focused on finding and killing [Liu Yong] while the Purple-Robed Marquis and the other cultivators attempted to establish the Underworld. Their ritual succeeded in creating a tiny Underworld, but the cultivator who claimed the title of Ghost Emperor was struck by lightning and reduced to ashes.

• Wang Quan questioned whether changing history would affect the Present World and decided to prioritize killing [Liu Yong] before dealing with the pioneers.
• Wang Quan harvested the black-haired water buffalo demon’s organs, healed him, and made him his mount, Little Blackie.
• Wang Quan and other cultivators practiced cultivation while the Purple-Robed Marquis led the others in crafting materials to establish the Underworld.
• The cultivators pooled their Dharma Power, and one cultivator performed a ritual that brought the Underworld into existence on a grain-sized scale.
• The cultivator proclaimed himself the Underworld’s original Ghost Emperor, but lightning struck him and his body crumbled to ashes.

Wang Quan and the Purple-Robed Marquis left their tiny Underworld behind and cultivated on monster mounts until they reached the Foundation Establishment Realm. They arrived at Purple Gold Pass amid signs of war and were escorted into the city, where soldiers mistook them for recruits in an elite battalion.

• Wang Quan proposed that the group leave the barely expanded Underworld, reach Purple Gold Pass, and strengthen themselves before trying to open or expand another Underworld.
• Wang Quan and the others traveled on monster mounts while cultivating, eventually reaching the Foundation Establishment Realm despite lacking blood and vitality or an Inner Landscape.
• The Purple-Robed Marquis asked Wang Quan to join forces and seek command of a detachment at Purple Gold Pass so they would not be used as cannon fodder.
• Wang Quan and the others reached Purple Gold Pass, where soldiers checked their documents and told them to wait while a battle raged nearby.
• A large bird escorted Wang Quan and the others into Purple Gold Pass, where soldiers speculated that the mounted newcomers belonged to an elite battalion already suffering heavy losses.

Wang Quan and the Purple-Robed Marquis joined the Fierce Soldier Battalion and met a Grotto Heaven cultivator who explained their mission and the danger of using Present World spells. The cultivator respected Wang Quan for his legend rating, but Wang Quan was left wondering what practical use it had.

• A great bird led Wang Quan and the others to the Fierce Soldier Battalion camp, where they learned that cultivators in the magical contest expected to die regardless of when they arrived.
• The Purple-Robed Marquis claimed leadership so he could meet a Grotto Heaven cultivator, and Wang Quan accompanied him to the man's tent.
• The Grotto Heaven cultivator ordered Wang Quan to take his companions into battle and kill Great Qian soldiers to help locate their target, who was central to the history they had invaded.
• The cultivator warned that divination would draw heavenly lightning and that Present World spells could make them demonic aberrations whom Great Shang and Great Qian would join forces to kill.
• The cultivator struck the Purple-Robed Marquis out of the tent for speaking without a legend rating, then told Wang Quan that his own legend rating made him worthy of respect.
• Wang Quan asked what use legend rating had.

Wang Quan learned that legend rating might grant the power to change history and agreed to lead troops against Liu Yong. After receiving a cultivation technique and a tent, he realized other cultivators at Purple Gold Pass might also possess legend rating.

• The Grotto Heaven Cultivator told Wang Quan that legend rating could qualify someone to change history and asked him to lead the army against Liu Yong.
• Wang Quan accepted, and the Grotto Heaven Cultivator promised him cloud-piercing arrows and support from native experts if he encountered the target.
• The Grotto Heaven Cultivator revealed that his group had descended more than three months earlier, despite sharing Wang Quan's target, and gave Wang Quan a cultivation technique and resources.
• The Purple-Robed Marquis learned that Wang Quan would take command of his troops and decided to organize them, while imagining himself as a future Central Ghost Emperor.
• Wang Quan went to his enormous tent and heard other cultivators practicing, leading him to suspect that more cultivators at Purple Gold Pass had legend rating.

Wang Quan cultivated the Hundred-Armed Sole-Self Strength Method through the night, then joined the legend cultivators and Great Shang’s army at the front lines. As the battle began, Great Shang’s opening general was killed, leaving Wang Quan and the others doubting the army’s chances.

• Wang Quan entered his tent, took medicine, and began cultivating the Hundred-Armed Sole-Self Strength Method.
• Wang Quan found a connection between the method and Three Heads and Six Arms, but stopped trying to fuse them after sensing disharmony.
• Wang Quan cultivated through the night until his blood grew dense and his combat strength reached the peak of Foundation Establishment Life Cultivation.
• At dawn, the Grotto Heaven Cultivator summoned Wang Quan and the other legend cultivators, then led them and the army toward the front lines.
• The Purple-Robed Marquis wondered why Wang Quan was carrying banners and leading the charge instead of him.
• Great Shang’s general fought a Great Qian Empire general in single combat and was killed by a hammer blow.

Wang Quan learned how aberrant humans inherited traits through bloodlines as the armies fought, then charged into battle after the drums sounded. He and the other Legend Cultivators raced into the enemy ranks while the Grotto Heaven Cultivator watched over him, expecting him to find and kill the target.

• A three-headed, six-armed Great Qian general killed the Great Shang warrior who used the [Hundred-Armed Sole-Self Strength Method], but a winged Great Shang general later shot off one of his heads and drove him to flee.
• The Grotto Heaven Grand Cultivator explained to Wang Quan how cultivation, bloodline purity, and luck shaped aberrant humans, then told him to charge when the drums sounded and retreat when the gongs rang.
• After the winged general defeated the aberrant human, the central army sounded the drums and launched an all-out assault.
• Wang Quan jabbed a banner pole into Little Blackie's rump, making him sprint into battle, while Wang Quan charged ahead swinging his club.
• The Grotto Heaven Cultivator arranged winged aberrant humans to protect Wang Quan and watched him attack enemy soldiers alongside the other Legend Cultivators.
• The Purple-Robed Marquis caught up to Wang Quan and asked why the Grotto Heaven Grand Cultivator valued him and why they had been ordered to protect him; Wang Quan told him to focus on fighting.

Wang Quan and the Purple-Robed Marquis fought in a devastating battle, where a dying spell-combat cultivator unleashed a spell that turned soldiers into white-bone creatures. After the armies retreated, the Purple-Robed Marquis asked Flower-Scatter Daoist to persuade the Grotto Heaven Cultivator to keep their group off the battlefield until they gained Purple Mansion-level combat strength.

• Wang Quan charged through the battlefield with Little Blackie and the Purple-Robed Marquis, urging the exhausted mount to keep fighting.
• A dying female spell-combat cultivator used Thusness White Bone Contemplation, turning Great Qian soldiers into white-bone creatures that spread across the battlefield.
• Experts from Great Shang and Great Qian joined forces to kill the white-bone cultivator, then divided up her remains to study her methods.
• Other dying spell-combat cultivators unleashed their spells before experts from both empires killed them and plundered their bodies.
• The retreat gong sounded, and the Grotto Heaven Cultivator helped hold off Great Qian's pursuit while Wang Quan and the others returned to camp.
• The Purple-Robed Marquis told Flower-Scatter Daoist that over two hundred of their three thousand fellow Daoists had died and asked him to seek a pause in their deployment until they reached Purple Mansion-level strength.

The Purple-Robed Marquis led nearly four or five thousand cultivators away from Purple Gold Pass to train at Black Dragon Ridge, where they joined a vast cultivation and fortification effort. A year later, the Grotto Heaven Cultivator hinted to Wang Quan that he had allowed their departure for a specific reason, asking whether Wang Quan knew what Black Dragon Ridge held.

• Wang Quan argued that cultivators had to search for Liu Yong rather than wait years to grow stronger, and the Purple-Robed Marquis reluctantly agreed.
• The Purple-Robed Marquis rejected being used as cannon fodder, persuaded cultivators to leave with him, and led nearly four or five thousand of them toward Black Dragon Ridge.
• The Grotto Heaven Grand Cultivator let the group go and gave them travel documents to station at Black Dragon Ridge.
• After nearly a year of travel, the Purple-Robed Marquis and his companions arrived at Black Dragon Ridge and found vast numbers of cultivators refining Dharma Power and building defenses.
• The Black Dragon Ridge cultivators welcomed the newcomers, gave them resources to pursue Foundation Establishment, and joined the Purple-Robed Marquis in declaring their ambition to dominate the world.
• A year after the group left, Wang Quan asked why the Grotto Heaven Cultivator had allowed them to go, and the cultivator asked what Wang Quan knew about Black Dragon Ridge.

Wang Quan learned that the cultivators’ presence at Black Dragon Ridge had created the battle recorded in history, and that outsiders could not truly change history or establish its future sects. He continued fighting and searching for Liu Yong, but after a year with no leads, his group captured Great Qian prodigies to interrogate.

• The Grotto Heaven Cultivator told Wang Quan that Black Dragon Ridge had no strategic value and that the cultivators’ arrival there would cause the Battle of Black Dragon Ridge to happen.
• Wang Quan worried that their actions would fulfill history, while the Grotto Heaven Cultivator explained that they had to kill Liu Yong or risk being trapped in a repeating fragment of history.
• Wang Quan and the Grotto Heaven Cultivator concluded that outsiders who displayed [Nature Cultivation] would be studied by native powerhouses, and that successful cultivators would have to leave the era.
• Wang Quan stayed at Purple Gold Pass, fought on the battlefield, and searched for [Liu Yong] as more Legend Cultivators gathered around him.
• After a year without finding information about [Liu Yong], Wang Quan led dozens of Legend Cultivators in capturing Great Qian prodigies during a retreat and bringing them back to Purple Gold Pass for interrogation.

Wang Quan searched for Liu Yong while Purple Gold Pass endured an escalating assault from the Great Qian Empire. As the pass neared collapse, the spell-dueling cultivators prepared to flee, but the Grotto Heaven Cultivator and his allies realized the battlefield had changed their intentions and rushed to leave.

• Wang Quan interrogated captured Great Qian prodigies for clues about Liu Yong, recording even their fabricated stories as he continued his search.
• The war at Purple Gold Pass intensified, and Wang Quan and the other spell-dueling cultivators used native cannon fodder to shield themselves from the fighting.
• After ten days and nights of battle, Wang Quan judged that Purple Gold Pass would fall and prepared to escape with the remaining spell-dueling cultivators.
• Wang Quan fired a cloud-piercing arrow to summon the Grotto Heaven Cultivator, who mistook the signal for news that Liu Yong had been found and hurried over with other fighters.
• Wang Quan explained that the cultivators were outsiders who should preserve their strength, prompting the Grotto Heaven Cultivator and the other high-level cultivators to realize something was wrong and decide to leave at once.

Wang Quan and the Spell Combat Cultivators fled toward Black Dragon Mountain, but their inability to change Purple Gold Pass’s historical fall made them doubt whether they could alter events. Wang Quan reached Black Gold Pass without finding Yu Wanzhou, just as the Great Qian Empire’s army arrived.

• Wang Quan’s group slaughtered pursuing soldiers and harvested their bodies for spells and artifacts as they retreated from Purple Gold Pass.
• After seeing Purple Gold Pass fall on its historical schedule, Wang Quan questioned whether the cultivators could change history, and the group hurried to strengthen themselves.
• Most cultivators chose to go ahead to Black Dragon Ridge, while Wang Quan was kept with the group heading for Black Gold Pass.
• Wang Quan entered Black Gold Pass and learned that Yu Wanzhou and several Blessed Land and Legend Cultivators had left on a secret mission the previous year.
• After Wang Quan’s group had been stationed at Black Gold Pass for a little over a month, the Great Qian Empire’s army advanced on them.

Wang Quan and the Legend Cultivators retreated through successive passes before helping defend Gold Pass with Present World military formations, but the Great Qian Empire eventually breached it. At Black Dragon Mountain, they found a vast mountain fortress where its forces seized and enchanted the native troops into cannon fodder.

• Wang Quan and the Legend Cultivators fled Black Gold Pass and Silver Pass as the Great Qian Empire captured each one.
• At Gold Pass, Wang Quan and the others led military formations that tied down Great Qian troops, but Gold Pass fell after one year and three months.
• Wang Quan and his companions traveled toward Black Dragon Mountain, where Little Blackie profited by selling milk from his black-and-white dairy cows.
• The group arrived at Black Dragon Mountain and saw mountains transformed into a fortress filled with weapons, workshops, and a giant cannon being enlightened into a Spirit Monster.
• Clouds and chains seized most of the native troops, while the Way of Idiocy turned them into frenzied cannon fodder, alarming the Grotto Heaven Cultivators.

Wang Quan and the other Legend Cultivators trained at Black Dragon Mountain to reach the Purple Mansion Realm and prepare to kill [Liu Yong]. As the Great Qian Empire’s armies approached, the One-Way Passage Cultivator warned that the coming battle was their only chance to prevent devastating losses.

• Grotto Heaven Cultivators reassured the native experts that they would keep the [Nature Cultivation] methods among their own higher-ups and gave the experts introductory methods to study.
• The Grotto Heaven Cultivators gathered Wang Quan and the other Legend Cultivators in a mountain palace and asked them to cultivate in seclusion until they reached the Purple Mansion Realm.
• Wang Quan chose the Totem method to open his purple mansion, while he and the other Legend Cultivators cultivated with resources supplied by the Grotto Heaven Cultivators.
• Wang Quan and the others cultivated for months as the armies of the Great Qian Empire advanced toward Black Dragon Mountain.
• The One-Way Passage Cultivator arrived, urged the Grotto Heaven Cultivators not to rely on a historical reset, and warned that the final war would begin in seven or eight days.

The Great Shang Empire's Bloodline Legion, led by Princess Tianxuan, arrived at Black Dragon Ridge as the defenders prepared for the Great Qian army. Wang Quan and the other cultivators established Purple Mansions but failed to retrieve their Present World treasures before the Great Qian army reached the mountain.

• Black Dragon Ridge accelerated its preparations for war by awakening weapons into Spirit Monsters and stockpiling resources.
• Princess Tianxuan and the million-strong Bloodline Legion arrived, and the Grotto Heaven Cultivators recognized them as Great Shang's strongest force.
• Wang Quan and the others established Purple Mansions, and Wang Quan discovered his Present World Purple Mansion concealed behind his new one.
• The cultivators asked the Grotto Heaven Cultivators to retrieve their hidden Purple Mansions and treasures, but neither they nor the One-Way Passage expert could do so.
• The Great Qian Empire's army appeared at the foot of Black Dragon Mountain.